[Closed] The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2013-2014 season

Better day today, spent skiing. The bike rack makes a good ski rack

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Moderately concerned - my Knee is still a bit uncomfortable 2 weeks after my trip to Italy. No crashes or tweaks. I did ride a lot of powder on quite a short board. I thought I just had a spot of tendonitis but the're no graunchiness, ibroprofen hasn't really done much for it.

Lots of stairs at work so not much of a chance to rest it.

Off on another jaunt in just over a week.

Any recommendations?

@ oliverd1981

Is it the knee of your rear leg that is still giving you discomfort?

Riding a short board in powder can lead to stress on the inside (medial) ligaments of the knee. Whilst I'm clearly not a doctor (obviously), anecdotally, it's possible you've 'sprained' your MCL or something similar.

Best thing would be to pay a visit to a good sports physio, who will be able to provide a full assessment and recommend some remedial treatment/exercises.

You could also consider wearing a knee brace whilst riding to provide some additional support/confidence, however like many things you get what you pay for with knee braces and a proper 'fitting' session may pay dividends - Snow & Rock /Bodyfactor run clinics in the London and the South East

Thanks Digby that sounds about right - Initially I put it down to just too much weight o0n the back leg, I expected it to feel better by now. Unfortunately I'm offshore at the moment, I have about 24 hours at home before jetting of again so no physios or knee brace fitters, guess I'll just have to go with whatever I can find in Sports Authority when I get there.

Reckon I mastered the snow plough today.

Check me out.

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Stunning weather 🙂

Clearly not mastered the hockey stop.

Ooh nice orange fence.

After today, just 1 more day of work before a mates stag do, followed by a week snowboarding in Serre Che!

Just a bit excited!

Beautiful, dalesrider! Living up to your username! Which way did you come down? And did you ride to Placards, or get the train?

Got the train 🙂
Last time I was here you didnt have the hike out, mind that made the glacier flat and a lot of poling. Cant believe how much its shrunk

"placards" 🙄 Planards!

There's less of a hike to the little hut and the James Bond run to town, but I think you have to go a bit further down. Pretty sure it's been skiable this year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26297175

Teh radnezzz.

Just back from Bormio and Livigno......three and a half days and not a cloud in the sky......just awesome. Did 28miles on the last day stopping at 3pm, slightly tired! Peak to creek was 4.3 miles, 1800m drop which I did in 10mins including stopping to pick up a pals ski. Topped out at 58mph.

Nice stats!

Do we have time for me to say I've just finished packing for a 5 day "weekend" in Les Gets etc? I'll be in the air this time tomorrow!

First go out on the board I bought at the end of last season. 😀

Enjoy Ned!

Cheers, Tom. There's a very, very good chance I will!

Have a good trip nedrapier! 8)

What's the board you bought?

Beautiful day today in Les Gets. The snow on the back of Mont Chery was the probably the nicest I've had all season. Not the deepest, but properly light and powdery.

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View over Les Gets

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Lovely morning

Right then.

First things first, I've decided.

Snowboards are rubbish. Skis are the bestest.

Did I forget the 😀 *

More pertinently, when the best time to buy skis/bindings. I'm guessing end of season? What sort or discount should I be looking for.

And ski boots in person from a shop. That's not even a question. **** me rental boots aren't comfy.

*im learning to ski to get into touring and perhaps mountaineering.

Piemonster - You can get decent deals all year round on new skis and boots from the previous year. If you're after touring gear then there tend to be less discounts on boots and bindings (apart from extreme sizes of boots) presumably as most places stock less, but picking up skis appears to be easier. [cheeky ad mode] If you're looking for some fritschi touring bindings, I have a set that I'm looking to sell 😉 [/cheeky ad mode]

More importantly, with a good forecast for the weekend in Scotland - has anyone been out touring since mid week that can report on latest conditions?

Boots? Well, the problem with buying at the end of the season is that you're at the mercy of the season itself, and of the buying guesses that each shop made way back before that season kicked off! If you have normal/average sized feet, they can and do sell out often.

Still, well worth a look around!

Ski touring boots are never "comfy", some are less miserable than others. My current favourites are ten-year-old Dynafits with Garmont inners that require require regular re-gluing of the soles. If I had a time machine I'd go back and buy some felt inners from 20 years back because the current thermo-formable things are like having my feet in saunas after an hour of up. I've sold the ones I haven't liked at less than half price after a few trips so you mind find some cheap that don't suit someone else but suit you.

Touring has been good despite all the early-season pessimism, so stable we only put food and drink in the pack on the last trip. We didn't like the look of a corniche hanging over one valley (with temperature rising) so took another. Watching TV later we heard an unfortunate Scot had fallen through a corniche near Chamonix, nobody has mentioned it on this thread in three days so I hope you'll forgive me posting in an it's-been-windy-you-might-be-standing-on/under-a-corniche-so-take-care way.

Ski touring boots are never "comfy", some are less miserable than others.

Skin up a bit and get sweaty, traverse for a while to rub the ankles, descend for bit through washboard snow pressing on the tongues then skate for km or so, back up a bit with ski crampons so the skis stop dead rather than sliding at the end of a stride, put on proper crampons and front point up a gully ... do that for a few days and if you don't have bruises or blisters (or both) somewhere then you really have found "comfy" boots. I never have.

Fierce Earth on cbbc yesterday was all about avalanches. Aimed at kids obviously but interesting viewing for 30mins. Filmed at Tignes and it's on catch up.

Torridon tomorrow. Bit of a gamble but got to be in it to win it.

@piemonster, general wisdom is that you buy boots first and absolutely in person from a shop with a deceit range. i would rather pay full price and get what I want/need than try and save money and get the wrong thing as thats all that was left. if you're skiing on holidays (i.e. to full seasons) good boots should last you 10-15 years. Buying skis is more difficult to recommend, the designs have changed massively over the years where boots haven't changed much. Skis do wear out/get broken and if you buy your own you'll have maint to do so its a personal preference.

Torridon tomorrow. Bit of a gamble but got to be in it to win it.

Tomorrow's forecast looks about the best for that area - make the most of it and post a quick report if you can. I might be not too far away on Sunday if all is well.

Find a proper boot fitter!!!! Don't just accept snow and rock Saturday staff etc - try rivington alpine in NW or Colin at solutions for feet in Bicester - worth making the trip and getting job done properly...

Ski touring boots are never "comfy", some are less miserable than others

My Maestrales are like slippers.

My Maestrales are like slippers

Likewise. I've done multi-day tours in my Maestrales including the Haute Route and never had as much as a sore spot never mind a blister, and I have oddly-shaped feet that don't generally play well with ski boots. On the other hand a friend tried some Scarpa Freedoms earlier this year without having them properly fitted (they were a test pair so weren't thermo-moulded) and managed one run before taking them back to the shop in agony. At the end of the day it's all down to finding a good fitter; I had mine done by Lockwoods in Leamington Spa..

Find a proper boot fitter!!!!

It'll be a Scottish fitter, I've already stalked a few snow heads threads for ideas. Will have a mooch at winter highland too. If anyone has any recommendations they'd be appreciated. Anywhere in the highlands or central belt will be fine as far as distance goes. Dundee based.
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So, trees are fun then.

make the most of it and post a quick report if you can.

Climbed North Gully and skied Central Couloir on Sgorr Ruadh. A great day out but not great skiing.

Safely back from France, unlike some 🙁 Stopped by the Menen gate on the way back

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You lot must have very uncomfortable slippers. 😉

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Two things I've noticed this season. 1) It looks like snowboard pants are getting tighter and ski pants are getting looser? A lot of the boarders in my resort this season are rocking the tight pants. Orage ones this year all look pretty tight. Doesn't seem to fit the boarder image to me.

2), What's with all the bright neon jackets and pants on the slopes??? It just looks a bit wrong to me. Neon yellow should be kept to construction sites and builders yards, imo.

And lastly, one small thing that does my head in a bit. The way skiers are called skiers and snowboarders are called 'riders'. We are all riding the mountain and I think its just snowboarders way of trying to be a bit superior over us?

Also, can anyone remember who makes the skis with the weird looking dent in the tip? Like it was beaten in with a hammer or something? Was just talking about them to a mate but couldn't remember who makes them.

can anyone remember who makes the skis with the weird looking dent in the tip?

Kastle?

@michaelmcc - Snowboarders are called 'riders' because 'boarders' sounds so shitty; like a posh kid that gets sent away to school.

Why do people get so hung up about what to call things?
Boarding, snowboarding, boarders, riders? What the **** does it matter?

What Dez said!!

Spin - Member
can anyone remember who makes the skis with the weird looking dent in the tip?
Kastle?

Could be;
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Skipron!

I believe the idea is to lighten the tips to get faster changes of direction. Either way, Kastle skis are lovely to ski, but they do look a little 'Hedge fund manager's skis' for my liking! 🙂

A bit like Salomon BBRs. Perfectly decent all round ski, but looks silly.

Well I'm back in the office today after another awesome holiday in Jasná with [url= http://www.chaletslovakia.com/ ]Chalet Slovakia[/url]

It was warm and the snow was pretty poor. Very thin and slushy. More like end-of-season conditions than late Feb. So proper off-piste was pretty much out.

But luckily we've got a really good crew to ride with there, so we adapted, borrowed some little bendy boards and mostly spent the week practising presses and butters. 😀

We did take the newly-purchased avi gear out for one day - just for a play. Hiked the top ridge, practised with transceivers, dug a couple of pits and attempted to apply our book-learning to the results. And stalked a herd of ten [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_chamois ]Tatra Chamois[/url], which was cool.

Jasná has really got under my skin - we always have such a great time there, regardless of the conditions.

Good people and fun times.

I guess this helps too:

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Now, just nine days of work to survive till I'm off to Les Deux Alpes. 😀

The way skiers are called skiers and snowboarders are called 'riders'. We are all riding the mountain and I think its just snowboarders way of trying to be a bit superior over us?

I guess it all comes down to etymology; Not really worth getting hung up about at all, but certain words and phrases sound 'right' and some don't!

For me 'boarding is either getting on an aircraft or a pupil 'living' at [public] school.

Looking at other 'standing sideways' hobbies & activities:

Riding a skateboard is skating; riding a surfboard is surfing but this doesn't tranfer to snowboading as 'snowing' already has a different meaning and sadly the term 'snurfing' didn't catch on.

It was once decribed to me that skiers ski the piste and snowboarders ride the mountain, however this has clearly changed in recent years with the cross-over in technology between skiing & snowboarding.

The term 'riding' when referring to snowboarding has been acceptable and preferred use in North America for decades, but has gained some popularity recently in UK & Europe where english speakers have previously used the term 'boarding ...

I really don't see it as and 'Us & Them' thing ... I really get very weary of the seemingly 'Brit abroad' division between sking and snowboarding but I personally don't see using the term 'riding' as perpetuating this in anyway or trying to claim superiority in anyway.

In a similar way the term 'biker' doesn't sound right ro me when referring to someone on a bicycle, but 'rider' does for someone on an MTB, whereas 'cyclist' seems most appropriate for someone on a road bike

However I wouldn't get offended if someone else used any of the terms.

I snowboard ok, but ski quite poorly for what it's worth, but I enjoy both.

vive la différence! 🙂